Opening the black box of energy throughputs in farm systems: a decomposition analysis between the energy returns to external inputs, internal biomass reuses and total inputs consumed (the Vallès County, Catalonia, c.1860 and 1999)
We present an energy analysis of past and present farm systems aimed to contribute to their sustainability assessment. Looking at agroecosystems as a set of energy loops between nature and society, and adopting a farm-operator standpoint at landscape level to set the system boundaries, enthalpy valu...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Data de publicação: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositório: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/86061 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/86061 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.11.012 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Combinatorial analysis Operations research Combinatòria Investigació operativa Classificació AMS::05 Combinatorics Classificació AMS::90 Operations research, mathematical programming::90B Operations research and management science Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Matemàtiques i estadística::Matemàtica discreta::Combinatòria Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Matemàtiques i estadística::Investigació operativa::Simulació |
| Resumo: | We present an energy analysis of past and present farm systems aimed to contribute to their sustainability assessment. Looking at agroecosystems as a set of energy loops between nature and society, and adopting a farm-operator standpoint at landscape level to set the system boundaries, enthalpy values of energy carriers are accounted for net Final Produce going outside as well as for Biomass Reused cycling inside, and External Inputs are accounted using embodied values. Human Labour is accounted for the fraction of the energy intake of labouring people devoted to perform farm work, considering the local or external origin of their food basket. In this approach the proportion of internal Biomass Reused becomes a hallmark of organic farm systems that tend to save External Inputs, whereas industrial farming and livestock breeding in feedlots tend to get rid of reuses replacing them with inputs coming from outside. Hence, decomposing the internal or external energy throughputs may bring to light their contrasting sociometabolic profiles. A Catalan case study in 1860 and 1990 is used as a test bench to show how revealing this decomposing analysis may be to plot the energy profiles of farm systems and their possible improvement pathways. |
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